Thud!
A puff of smoke dissipated. Jiraiya, having returned to Konoha from Mount Myōboku, landed steadily on the ground, clutching the forbidden scroll from the mountain.
"Accompanied by extreme weeping, he fell laughing under the chakra jutsu... does that mean I'm going to die?" he wondered.
"And the blond, blood-eyed boy from several prophecies... could he be Menma?"
Thinking about these disconnected prophecies gave Jiraiya a throbbing headache. He wasn't afraid of death itself, but he dreaded dying the wrong way, causing things to spiral toward the worst possible outcome. After all, according to the Great Toad Sage, the future could change at any moment. It was no longer fixed or predictable. Even the slightest choice could lead to different results.
"But according to the Second Hokage's plan, those outcomes shouldn't have happened. Could some unknown reason have caused the failure?"
Jiraiya gripped the scroll tightly, a sudden realization dawning.
"Or rather, the Great Toad Sage handed the power of choice to me, forcing me to make a decision."
"Sealing, separating, or... annihilation!"
A chill ran down the Sannin's spine, cold sweat pouring down his back. Behind every choice lay mountains of corpses, seas of blood, and endless calamity. He found it difficult to breathe, frantically inhaling through his mouth and nose.
Unfortunately, Jiraiya would never know until his death that the original ninja world was a script arranged by the Sage of Six Paths. Everyone was a pawn he'd designed long ago, each with a predetermined fate—all to prevent Kaguya from breaking her seal and to expose Black Zetsu's schemes.
Therefore, the Great Toad Sage, Gamamaru, had seen a fixed future, one unchanged for a long time. But all this was predetermined because, more than three months ago, a soul not belonging to this world jumped off the chessboard, becoming a new pawn. In other words, the arrival of Menma with the System brought uncertainty. The final outcome now depended entirely on Menma's thoughts.
And for someone like Jiraiya, who could get close to Menma, his choices could indeed influence the outcome to some extent. For example, whether he himself would actually die.
"Perverted Sage!"
Naruto's shout rang out from afar, a strange mix of grievance and excitement, as if he'd found a powerful backer.
Jiraiya looked in the direction of the voice and saw Tsunade looking completely satisfied, and Naruto, covered in dust with a large bump on his head. After Tsunade led Naruto away from the crowded street, she'd given him a beating. Of course, she wasn't using the beating to vent her anger—she wanted to see Naruto's strength and his control over the Nine-Tails' chakra.
The result was clearly quite good. Although Naruto's strength and control were rather weak, his energetic and unyielding spirit made her feel a sense of warmth and familiarity. It offered some solace to the suppressed sadness she felt over Hashirama's failure to return.
It was just a pity that she never got to see that alternate personality, Menma. Just as the intelligence report said, Menma really enjoyed fighting.
"Jiraiya, it seems you've finished your business. Let's get started," Tsunade said, approaching Naruto and stretching her wrists. Her slightly flushed face held an expectant look, as if she anticipated some fun things to come. "After you teach Naruto his training, I'll supervise him afterwards!"
Naruto, on the other hand, looked utterly resistant and quickly ran behind Jiraiya. "I don't want a perverted sage! This old woman is a violent maniac—she always hits people on the head. She'll definitely make me stupid! If you really want me supervised, let my older brother do it. With him there, I definitely won't slack off!"
After saying that, Naruto stuck his tongue out at Tsunade, pulled his eyelids, and made a provocative face.
"Older brother?" Jiraiya paused, then asked with a bad feeling, "You mean Menma?"
He remembered Naruto always called Menma by his full name before. Now he was calling him "older brother"—didn't that mean their relationship was closer? If that was true, the Second Hokage's plan might really fail. More likely, it would push Naruto to the opposite side as well.
"Yeah." Naruto rubbed his nose with a happy look on his face. "I just got older brother's approval, so I'm not an orphan anymore. I have a real family now, hehehe!"
"Family..." Jiraiya unconsciously tightened his grip on the forbidden scroll, his expression darkening. What a little brat, actually treating another version of himself as an older brother.
Tsunade, who'd also heard Naruto's words, pursed her lips and vigorously shook the bulging green frog wallet in her hand. "Fine, if you don't want me to supervise you, then use this money to compensate for the psychological damage you caused me~"
"Ah!" The moment Naruto saw that green wallet, he quickly reached for his empty pockets. Then, angrily, he pointed at Tsunade and shouted, "My frog wallet, you wretched old woman, give it back to me!"
"Wretched old woman?" The veins on Tsunade's forehead bulged visibly. The frog wallet in her hand was squeezed out of shape, bills oozing out.
Seeing Tsunade like this, Naruto felt the bump on his head start throbbing again. He immediately hid behind Jiraiya, yelling, "Take it all, consider it my filial piety toward an elder. I don't need this little bit of pocket money!"
"Pocket money!" Now it was Tsunade's turn to be dumbfounded.
Shizune, holding her pet pig, stepped forward and whispered, "Lady Tsunade, Naruto wrote a bestseller, even more popular than Jiraiya's! And the Shimura clan gave Naruto a considerable amount of wealth, so he's quite a rich young man..."
"A rich young man!" Tsunade's eyes practically popped into the shape of dollar signs. A multitude of debt repayment plans flashed through her mind. She owed a lot of money, which was why she'd been constantly moving to different places to avoid creditors. Now that she was back in Konoha, it wouldn't be long before they came knocking.
Just as Tsunade was pondering how to get some money out of Naruto, Jiraiya suddenly interrupted her. "Tsunade, I want to speak with Naruto alone for a few minutes."
"What do you mean?" Looking at Jiraiya, Tsunade's good mood vanished instantly.
Jiraiya shook his head. "I know my limits. I just want to try one last time."
Hearing this, Tsunade tossed the frog-shaped wallet in her hand to Naruto and walked away with Shizune. "Remember your current status. Just don't disappoint your great-uncle."
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